16. Minimum agricultural activity

The Basic Payment Scheme is area based and has been regionalised
to reflect the variation in the traditional quality of land across
Scotland. There are three Payment Regions:

Payment Region one - this includes better
quality agricultural land that has been used for arable cropping,
temporary grass
* and permanent grass
**

Payment Region two - this includes rough grazing
*** with a Less Favoured Areas (
LFA) grazing
category of B, C, D or non-
LFA

Payment Region three - this includes rough
grazing with an
LFA grazing
category A

In addition, Payment Regions two and three have been designated
as 'land naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing'. This
means that there is a presumption that there is no meaningful
agricultural intervention by the farmer to maintain the
agricultural potential on the land. Consequently, a farmer must
undertake a specified activity in order to turn such land into
eligible hectares.

The minimum agricultural activity a farmer must undertake to
make the land eligible for the Basic Payment Scheme is related to
the region or regions applicable to the land he declares. These
requirements are applicable to all farmers however, where there is
a choice of activity to be undertaken, it is up to the individual
farmer concerned.

* temporary grass (
TGRS) is grass sown
down or reseeded in a five-year period following the growing of an
arable or break crop.

** permanent grass (
PGRS) is grass that has
not been reseeded in the last five years. It continues to be
described as
PGRS when reseeded
provided no break crop (arable or catch) has been grown.

*** rough grazing (
RGR) are areas of low
productivity grasses and other herbaceous forage and are
constrained by issues such as poor drainage, steep slopes and / or
rock (scree). These areas would be 'unimproved' and would not
receive applications of mineral fertiliser or manure.